: : : : : : : : I hadn't thought of this before but I think, "fast asleep" is that she's fully asleep.

: : : : : : : : "Sound asleep" implies she's in a deep sleep.

: : : : : : : : The difference if there is any is very slight so I'd think either way of saying it would do.

: : : : : : : I haven't given it any thought until now either. I am not sure, but I think I probably use them very much interchangeably - no doubt I will now be shown to be unspeakably sloppy!

: : : : : : 'fast' is used in the sense of 'tightly' or 'resolutely' (think 'fastened') - and 'sound' is being used in the sense of 'solid' or 'reliable' - there is not a fag-paper of difference between the usages when applied to sleep (IMO).
: : : : : : both are entirely acceptable meaning completely asleep.
: : : : : : I like 'comatose' myself.

: : : : : : zzzzzz.

: : : : : What is the meaning and origin of that? It sounds derogatory.

: : :
: : : Yes it's funny how terms evolve and change meaning completely. When I was young, fags were always cigarettes, but now I doubt anyone would dare to call them fags, given the term is now used in a derogative way to describe gay men. Another word that has made that transition in my memory is 'hooker'. When I was young 'hooker' was a rugby term and nothing else, but with American TV, that can be interpreted to mean a prostitute. Although it's still a Rugby term and hooker isn't really a word we use much here in reference to women on the game.

: : : We have a large real estate chain here called L.J. Hooker Pty Ltd. Because they're real estate and big, they have big advertising signs all around. I remember an American friend who was visiting thought it was very amusing - and I had no idea why at the time.

: :
: : 'Fag' is very much still in current use to mean cigarette, at least in my experience, despite the American meaning.

: : DFG

: Fags - from "faggot" - a bundle of sticks to use as firewood. a "faggot" is also a name for English meatballs - I'm not sure how that translated into "fags" meaning junior boys abused as servants by older boys at public school - perhaps as quasi-servants they had to fetch the faggots to tend the fire. I think the term of abuse "faggot" may have that source. in the Midlands, faggots are still popular as something to eat. at a football match (Burton-Upon-Trent) a friend had a faggot and chips with gravy served from the pitch-side fast-food outlet - it was a double-entendre that he'd "had a faggot" before the match...and publicly in front of his wife.

: It may be peurile of me, but wouldn't it have been even funnier if the firm had been "B.J. Hooker" ?

: I don't know how parents can give their children the initials BJ any more than they can use VD with a straight face.

: "A boy named Sue" should be a girl named "BJ" - yet Billie-Jo Spears doesn't seem to have suffered for it.

: L

Check out the link below for my first encounter with a hooker.
http://www.galwayonline.ie/history/history2/hookers.htm